Scrap marriage, says Christian group
( Filed: 17/06/2006)

Marriage should be abolished and replaced by a variety of civil partnerships, a progressive religious think-tank has suggested.

Christian group Ekklesia said the abolition of legal marriage would allow couples to specify the type of legal commitment they wished to make to one another.

Under their proposals, couples would still be allowed to marry if they wished but the legal aspect would be removed from the ceremony and they would then have to register their partnership under law in a separate process.

The group believes the current situation is confused by attempts to fuse Christian and civil concepts of marriage into a "one-size-fits-all" arrangement.

Under existing law, if a couple marries in a Church of England ceremony they are simultaneously legally and religiously married because of its status as the Established Church.
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